"According to an inside source, a session was held at Microsoft's recent TechReady15 conference in which all the launch details were laid out. If things go according to the plan detailed then, the Surface for Windows RT tablet will be launching October 26th - no surprise there - at a compelling price of $199." My wallet just squealed in pure bliss.

Part of the reason that developers flock to Apple devices is that they are not cheap.

I think you mean vain tech hipsters, not developers.

It's economics that attracts developers, not the consumer price of the platform. We've seen this with game consoles where the cheaper option (ps2 vs xbox) gets more developer support simply because the install bsae is larger.

They should come out at $499 and fight for the 2 or 3 years it will take to get some traction

That would be foolish. Apple can get away with overpricing hardware because it has tricked enough people into believing that the hardware is magically special and not from the same Chinese sweatshops as everything else. Kindle has done the best against the iPad and the $200 price tag is a major part.

Through marketing Apple has convinced millions it is a premium brand. Microsoft's marketing department is terrible and couldn't use the same strategy.

It's economics that attracts developers, not the consumer price of the platform. We've seen this with game consoles where the cheaper option (ps2 vs xbox) gets more developer support simply because the install bsae is larger.

Tablets are not consoles. It matters a whole helluvalot to be cheap when your market demographic is pimple faced kids and twenty somethings...

Consoles are pure home entertainment devices. They don't have to be well crafted, no one cares. They don't have to use good materials - they end up hiding on a shelf in an entertainment center, plastic is perfectly fine. People don't hold them in their hands (well, except for the controllers). They have 5+ year product cycles (current one being much longer) to recover sunk costs through licensing. Business people don't buy them. Executives don't buy them. Doctors don't buy them. Totally different demographic.

If you think Microsoft can market a tablet like a console your crazy. It won't work.

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They should come out at $499 and fight for the 2 or 3 years it will take to get some traction

That would be foolish. Apple can get away with overpricing hardware because it has tricked enough people into believing that the hardware is magically special and not from the same Chinese sweatshops as everything else. Kindle has done the best against the iPad and the $200 price tag is a major part. " [/q]

Yep, Kindle is doing great! They are losing marketshare even with their stellar price point, and they probably have to sell 25 of them to make as much money as Apple makes on a single sale... Brilliant strategy!

If you think Microsoft can market a tablet like a console your crazy. It won't work.

I never said they could. What I think is crazy is that thinking a higher price would sell more surface tablets than a lower one. It's like suggesting ford should randomly tack on 10k to the F150 to increase sales. It won't work no matter how many commercials they make trying to claim it is now a premium truck. Sales would fall.

They should come out at $499 and fight for the 2 or 3 years it will take to get some traction

Yep, Kindle is doing great! They are losing marketshare even with their stellar price point, and they probably have to sell 25 of them to make as much money as Apple makes on a single sale... Brilliant strategy!

I said Kindle has done the best against the iPad, or are you going to try and deny this?

Samsung already tried selling Android tablets at premium and it failed. Why not just buy an iPad? That is what it comes down to.

Maybe it would be dumb, but why would MS think it not so, why is Win 8 on the desktop hung on whatever Metro is being called today and why is Win 8 priced so cheaply as an upgrade?

Might even upgrade myself, now I've figured how to only see 'Metro' fleetingly and have a start button back (if not quite perfectly)

Fear of future profitability and losing control over whatever the market will be for computer devices now its no longer limited to PC's. If I was MS, I'd bear any burden, pay any price...

Not sure it'll work but then I think Apple is in just as much danger, if not more so, in the medium term unless they come up with yet another whizz cash cow, have my doubts.....hence absurd patent legal trials